MODERATORS’ REPORT
GROUP M
PINN MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH
FEB. 23, 2009

Moderators: Harris Sokoloff, Chris Satullo

Overview: This was a small overflow group that met in the chapel. The group of about 18 was about two-thirds African American. Most were from West Philadelphia, with a suburbanite or two mixed in. The group seemed intimidated by the exercise at first, but warmed to its work considerably as the night went on and had a number of spirited debates, with plenty of humor. They did more than other groups we moderated in terms of returning to issues late in the night as Gut Wrenchers and changing its earlier decisions.

TOTAL POINTS: 60

LOW HANGING FRUIT:
Total points: 10

• No. 20 - Eagles - 4 points - This took about 10 seconds. By acclamation.

• No. 16 -Vehicle Fleet - 6 points - Nearly unanimous.

“Lots of city workers seem to drive city cars unnecessarily.”
“On top of cost, there’s environmental reasons to get people to drive less.”
Citizens wanted workers to use Philly CarShare more. (Were unaware of Zip Car contract.)
• Several items were proposed for LHF, but voted down.
o No. 3. DROP - Several people spoke strongly in favor: “A lot of these items on the sheet will cut costs by costing people jobs. But this one doesn’t do that.”
o But a city worker replied: “DROP helps the retirement security of many Philadelphians, people like sanitation workers who’ve done hard, physical labor their whole lives.”.
o In the end a majority voted to drop DROP, but not a large enough one: 11 oru of 9 votes. The group did not return to this.
• Proposals relating to take the three-day closing of all branches library option and the 20 percent Fairmount Park option as LHF were voted down.

No Way, No Hows

Total points taken off the table: 105
• No. 7 - Housing - Unanimous. 7 points
A woman who works at a shelter spoke eloquently: “This area is underfunded as it is. We turn people away already. In this recession, the number of people in need will only go up/

• No. 11 - Police - 52 points. The sense was that economic hard times would only increase street crime, making cuts in police unwise.

• No. 13 - Health centers - 7 points - Unanimity about not closing centers. Much discussion, with some confusion, about whether the co-pay piece was reasonable, or would discourage people from seeking the treatment they need. Strong opinions both ways. A health care worker said: “Look you can send people a bill for the treatment, but they’ll just put that in a drawer with the other unpaid bills.” No vote taken.

• No. 5 - Fire - Lots of discussion. 20 points.
• Several participants thought the argument that the city had a higher ratio of fire companies to population suggested that cuts were possible.
• But one person said, “Well, I pay really high taxes to this city; I ought to get some services that are better than normal for all that money.”
• The arguments that seemed to sway most voters were that a city with such old housing stock was more prone to fires, and that EMS services were critical to the elderly, in a city with many elderly poor.
• Group came back to this in Gut Wrenchers, with a different result.

• No. 8 - Human services. 19 points. The concern about losing matching funds weighed heavily for this group. A couple who volunteer in a DHS-related family support program argued passionately that the department was turning itself around and this was no time to cut resources.

SHARED PAIN
Total points: 13

• No. 14 - Recreation. This was one of the night’s most rousing discussions, with numerous testimonials to how important the Rec Dept. is to to city kids, giving them something to do and steering them away from crime. But the group, eager to get some points on the board, eventually agreed to its own notion of a cut: Open rec centers only a 2 p.m., sacrificing any daytime programs for seniors. They valued that at 1 point.

• No. 9 - Law dept cuts was approved with little debate. 2 points.

• No. 1 - Administrative - The group approved 2 points of cuts based on the principle that leaving positions unfilled, not hiring seasonal workers and giving furloughs was OK. Laying off workers was not. “It makes a difference to me whether it’s just an unfilled post or whether it’s a flesh and blood person losing their job.”

• No. 21 - Parking tax - 2 points - Nearly unanimous. “I value some incentive for people to use mass transit. This is good not just for the city, but for good environmental and global reasons.”

• No. 24 - Sales tax - 6 points - Narrowly approved. Some folks were strongly opposed, but this argument clinched the deal: “Look, it’s a got a big number next to it, mostly it’s employed people paying it, and it helps us close the gap.”

• A proposal to do No. 22, a one mill increase in the property tax, lost by one vote. The pros argued that the tax was relatively low and was a fair way to raise revenue. The cons argued that it might make houses even harder to sell, and would narrow Philly’s cost advantage vs. New York and New Jersey.

GUT WRENCHERS
Total points: 37 points

• No. 12 - 10 percent cut for prisons - 10 points.
• Like many other groups, this one wanted to focus the savings on closing a prison by releasing lots of non-violent offenders, and sentencing future ones to community service instead of jail. Lots of concern about the wrong people being released and committing crimes made this a failed Low Hanging Fruit, but when it was brought back at the end, it passed narrowly.

• No. 10 - L & I - 2 points
• The group was horrified at the idea of no restaurant/vendor inspections; so they voted to do all L & I cuts but that one, valuing it at 2 points.

• No. 5 - Fire - 10 points
• Having voted Fire a NWNH, the group returned to it at the end as a gut-wrencher. “How much does all this lobbying that firefighters are doing at these events affect us?” one woman asked. Another said, “We’ve gone from 2 million people to 1.5 million; I just think we’ve got to take another look at that.” In the end they voted narrowly to approve a 10 percent cut in the dept., focused on getting efficiencies in fire services, using software to limit damage to reaction times, but no cuts to EMS services.

• No. 7 - Amusement tax - 2 points. Though this slipped to Gut Wrenchers in terms of timing, the vote was nearly unanimous after little debate.

• No. 11 - Police - 13 points for a 5 percent cut. Done quickly in spirit of putting some points on the board.

• The real estate tax was raised again here and voted down again.

• Finally, someone raised the idea of approving the trash fee as a gut-wrencher: “Look, it’s just giving up one Big Mac a week. Just let the hamburgers go and we get a big boost.” But it was voted down 13-2.